After the cataract surgery yesterday morning, I was ordered to be a couch potato for the remainder of the day and refrain from heavy reading and computer work so I, being the good patient I am (I have had lots of practice!), didn’t really have much time to read about what was going on in the world to figure out what to write about today.  However, I did read a letter to the editor in the paper this morning that made just an incredible amount of sense to me so I decided to just share it in its entirety. 

[Just for the record, the vision in my right eye is now crystal clear and, in a week, my left eye should follow suit and I will be back to clear vision!  After the surgery, as I was getting ready to leave, the nurse said, “No wonder you couldn’t see, that was one big cataract!!  The retinal surgeon who did the first surgery had told me that the surgery would accelerate the growth of the cataract.  I guess he wasn’t lying!  In any case, all appears to be well.  I have worn contacts since 1972 and that era is coming to an end.  Yeah!]

With the COVID death toll approaching 500,000 and, in spite of that, states like Montana are choosing to repeal state-wide mask mandates, the following Letter to the Editor really struck a chord with me this morning.

“Wearing a mask not unlike putting the safety on”

There is a golden rule among firearm owners to treat all weapons as if they were loaded.  You always keep your safety on and you never point your weapon at someone. There are thousands of needless tragedies and fatalities have occurred when these rules are not followed.

Every one of these deaths are tragic, but I cannot imagine how the emotional trauma is compounded when family members are involved, as when, for example, a daughter accidently kills her father on a hunting outing because she couldn’t detect a bullet hidden in the chamber of her gun.  In this instance, a life is lost and another is forever burdened with grief and guilt.

Not once in my 50 years as a hunter and gun owner, I have I heard anybody complain or protest that their “freedoms” are being compromised because they are expected to keep their safety on and not point their weapon (loaded or unloaded) at someone.  Universally, you respect the lethal potential of your weapon and you respect the people around you.

So, I am troubled by the belligerence of some members of my state who refuse to wear a mask in these times of extreme pandemic.  Like it or not, today any one of us could be carrying a deadly but undetected virus like a bullet hidden in our chamber.  Read the news:  daughters and sons are accidentally killing strangers and family members alike.  Deaths are rising and businesses are locked down or forever closed because of rampant Covid transmission.  Wearing a mask is not about giving up freedom.  It’s about respecting the lethal potential of this invisible weapon called Covid.  It’s about avoiding the tragedy of accidentally killing loved ones and strangers.  It’s about respecting life and respecting each other.  Please “put your safety on” by wearing a mask.”     [Doug Mavor, Bozeman]

Extremely well said.  It’s so logical.  It makes so much sense.  It is absolutely beyond me why this is such a difficult concept to grasp by some subset of the population. 

As I’ve read more and more about how the Republican senators who voted to convict Trump are being subjected to censure by their state Republican parties and even shunned by their families (Sen. Adam Kinzinger – Illinois) it just seemed to me that this whole obsession with Trump has gone way past politics.  This really seems more like a personality cult than a political movement. According to Merriam-Webster a Personality Cult is: a situation in which a public figure (such as a political leader) is deliberately presented to the people of a country as a great person who should be admired and loved.  The most famous current example is, of course, North Korea.

Cults are generally associated with various religious sects and so I turned to religion to find a list of warning signs that a group is really a cult¹.  These warning signs are:

The Leader is infallible

This is particularly interesting with respect to Trump because it is well documented how he, personally, virtually never apologizes nor will he ever admit to a mistake.  During his first impeachment trial he argued that his conversation with President Zelensky was ‘perfectly appropriate,’ even though only his most ardent supporters agreed with that assessment.  Likewise, during the second impeachment trial, he again said that his inflammatory speech on January 6^th that resulted in the assault on the capital was ‘perfectly appropriate.’  Not only does Trump, himself, present himself as infallible, his acolytes are able to rationalize all of his behaviors such that to an outside observer, it would appear that Trump is without fault and infallible.

Deceptive Recruitment Tactics

“Cult recruitment typically revolves around convincing potential members that they will be offered something they do not have in their current lives”.¹ Trump did this in spades.  He promised to ‘Build the Wall’ and have Mexico pay for it – false. (He diverted US tax dollars (military funds) to try to pay for the wall.  He promised to revitalize the coal industry – false. (The fact is that it was market economics more than regulation that hurt the coal industry.  Natural gas is more economical).  He promised China would pay for the trade war Trump started – false.  (The cost was primarily borne by the American consumer.)  He promised his massive tax cut would benefit most Americans – false.  (The majority of the benefit accrued to the wealthiest Americans and corporations and resulted in a widening of income inequality and a massive increase in the national debt).  Myriads of false promises that make good sound bites but do not reflect the reality of what actually occurred.

Exclusivity in Faith

There was no compromise in Trumpism.  It’s either Trump’s way or no way.  The biggest sign of this is in the failure to draft a party platform at the Republican convention in 2020 beyond essentially, ‘support Trump and whatever he wants to do.’  Anyone who disagreed with Trump was looked upon as an outcast.

Intimidation, Fear and Isolation

It is well documented how Trump and his supporters would seek to punish anyone who disagreed with him.  People would be fired who disagreed with him.  He has famously used fear and intimidation as a tactic throughout his life, even before he became president.  And now what we are witnessing with the censuring of senators who voted to convict Trump and others who have not supported him is an attempt to ostracize them from the very party that they have supported for years.  Governor Brian Kemp (R- Georgia) and Brad Raffensberger (R – Georgia) have become political pariahs because they refused to overturn the results of the Georgia election.

Illegal Activities

Even after Trump was acquitted in the two impeachment trials, he is facing at least half a dozen different investigations involving both civil and criminal activities.  There were more people in Trump’s orbit indicted, convicted and sent to jail than for any other president in modern history.  And that is not to mention the numerous government appointees made by Trump who later had to step down amid ethics violations. 

Religious Dogma

In Trump’s case, this is really more along the lines of Political Dogma.  Trump’s ‘America First’ policy and ‘Make America Great Again’ became the dogma of his acolytes, even though the policies stemming from these ‘philosophies’ were extremely damaging to America, its world standing and its economy. 

The bottom line is that the Republican party needs to do some serious soul searching and decide if they want to continue to be a personality cult or a political party.  They can’t have it both ways.  If the party cannot articulate a vision for the country and come up with a party platform that clearly articulates that vision without referencing a specific person, they will devolve into nothing more than a personality cult.  Given the lack of courage shown by the majority of Republicans in Congress to date, I am not optimistic they will choose wisely. 

1. Cults: Warning Signs and Red Flags (learnreligions.com)

It was a virtual certainty that Trump would be acquitted but it was, nonetheless, hard to see it actually happen.  The evidence was pretty overwhelming and in the words of Republican Senator, Lisa Murkowski, ‘pretty damning.’   Murkowski was one of 7 Republican senators who found their spine and voted to convict Trump.  However, 43 other Republican senators must have left their spines at home when it came time to vote.  Most of these cowards hid behind the ‘the trial is unconstitutional’ excuse to justify their votes.  This, even in light of the fact that the majority of Constitutional scholars have weighed in on the question and said that convicting Trump even after he left office was perfectly within the bounds of the Constitution.  But, then again, when did facts ever stand in the way of the many rationalizations used by the majority of Republicans to continue to support Trump?

The hypocrisy was on full display after the verdict.  Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, immediately went on the floor of the Senate and said that Trump was responsible for the attack on the capitol and yet just a few minutes before that he had voted to acquit Trump using the ‘the trial is unconstitutional’ excuse.  What is even more galling about the blatant display of hypocrisy, is that it was Mitch McConnell himself who refused to call the Senate into session so the trial could proceed while Trump was still in office.  I just don’t know how he had the gall to get up and make that speech.  I guess I shouldn’t be shocked at any of these antics any more.

Trump was acquitted but at least in the short term, he’s not my problem.  He is a huge problem for the Republican party.  As I said a couple of days ago, I have no doubt that there will be an all-out war for control of the Republican party and for me, I frankly don’t care which faction wins.  I have pretty much lost respect for the entire party which seems to be more interested in moving farther to the right and embracing Trumpism, QAnon, white supremacists, and a ‘win at any cost’ mentality.  I can think of no Republican right now who has been talked about as a candidate for the 2024 presidential election that I have any respect for whatsoever.  So, until such time as the Republican party decides to get back to things like basic fiscal conservative principles and actually respecting our democratic institutions, I really don’t care how much they fight amongst themselves.   Apparently, I’m not the only one who feels that way.  There are reports that between 100,000 and 150,000 Republicans have deregistered from the party since Jan. 6^th.  No doubt there will be more to follow.

I must say that it’s such a pleasure to not have a presidential Tweet storm to start every day.  It’s almost as if the government is running like it should – kind of quietly in the background.   I would like to be optimistic about the future of this country but the polarization that has become a plague almost worse than COVID has given me serious misgivings.  I am very afraid that Mitch McConnell in his role as senate minority leader will revert back to the ‘block everything Biden tries to do’ mode that he used in the Obama administration.  That, coupled with the more radical elements of the party like Jim Jordan, Matt Gaetz, Ron Johnson and QAnon supporter, Marjorie Taylor Greene, who will be hell bent to be as disruptive as they can, will make the next four years full of way more drama than they need to be.   The country needs to heal but I think the wounds opened by Trump will continue to fester. 

There are real problems facing this country and it just seems like many politicians think their job is to win elections at any cost rather than to solve the problems facing the country by engaging in constructive dialog and compromise.  I have begun to do some initial investigating about moving overseas for a while or at least taking some extended overseas trips and one of the things that struck me most as I looked into some of the places I am contemplating going is the access to affordable healthcare. Almost every industrialized nation in the world has some form of universal health care for their citizens that is far less costly than in the US.  The healthcare is top notch and, in fact, some of these places have become ‘medical tourist destinations’ because US citizens can fly to these countries, have surgery, have a vacation and it will still cost less than the same procedure back in the US.  That’s insane. 

I’m sure some will immediately jump on the myth that these are ‘socialist’ countries with exorbitantly high taxes and that is just bullshit.  These are democratic countries, with booming economies (certainly before COVID) and yet they have top notch health care systems.  Why the hell can’t we solve the health care problem in this country?  The simple answer is greed, partisan politics and a massive campaign to disseminate fear and misinformation.

There is an organization that publishes a ‘Global Safety Index’ which rates countries along three dimensions:  war and peace, personal security, natural disaster risk.  Sixteen of the top 20 countries are in Europe.  The United States is ranked 65^th.   Rather than look at this and ask, “How can we as a country make this country safer?”, most Republicans are adamantly against any type of gun control laws so we end up with situations like here in Montana where anyone will soon be able to carry a concealed weapon virtually anywhere. 

Like I said, I would like to be optimistic but by failing to hold Trump accountable again, the continued radicalization of politics, the huge misinformation campaign against science and facts, and just plain old-fashioned greed, it’s difficult to see how this country is going to be able to successfully address the many huge problems facing this country.   

Since life is short and I don’t really want to spend the next few years caught in a vortex of negative thoughts, I have decided perhaps its time to ‘go walkabout’ as they say in Australia.  This adventure is in the early stages of planning and will take a few months to finalize (and the world will certainly have to be more COVID-safe than it is now) but I’m getting more and more serious about some extended overseas trips.  As to whether or not this would ultimately lead to my being a full-time expat, I don’t know.  I’m sure there are some who would ask, “Why would you do that?” to which my simple response would be, “Why not?”.  Stay tuned.

I have to confess.  I didn’t watch much of the presentation that Trump’s defense lawyers put forth yesterday.  I tried and did tune in a few times but every time I heard what was being said I had such a visceral reaction that I just couldn’t watch and changed the channel or turned the TV off and did something else.  It was almost like re-watching the defense attorneys during the O.J. Simpson trial (although Simpson’s attorneys were certainly better than the team Trump was able to cobble together).

I think it is a pretty solid bet that Trump will be acquitted so the real question will be, “Where do we go from here?”  There are a couple of things that are certain.  First of all, Trump’s legal problems are far from over.  There are the ongoing investigations by the State of New York, by the Feds at the Southern District of NY office, and most recently, the investigation by the Georgia AG into Trump’s attempts to overturn the election in that state.  Additionally, there is the ongoing defamation suit brought by Stormy Daniels.  Trump will no doubt be able to spend copious amounts of time with his attorneys in the weeks and months ahead.  And he is not doubt very thankful for all of those Trumpsters who contributed their hard-earned money to his leadership PAC so he can use the OPM (Other Peoples Money) funds to pay his legal bills.

The other thing that is certain is that there is a huge fracture in the Republican Party right now.  There is the Trump faction, but there are also those in the party who are done with Trump and would like nothing more than to see him confined to the golf course at Mar a Lago.  The latest high-profile Republican to jump off of the Trump train is Nikki Haley, Trump’s former UN Ambassador.  She apparently has her eye on a White House run in 2024 and clearly broke with Trump in a recent interview.  “We need to acknowledge he let us down,” she told Politico magazine in an interview published Friday. “He went down a path he shouldn’t have, and we shouldn’t have followed him, and we shouldn’t have listened to him. And we can’t let that ever happen again.”¹  

There is no doubt that the rift in the Republican Party will play significantly in the 2022 mid-term elections.  There are 34 senate seats up for re-election in 2022;  20 of those are Republican seats and 14 are Democratic seats.  In addition, after the January 6 insurrection at the capital, there appears to be an exodus from the Republican party.² There is also the fact that a majority of Americans believe Trump bears responsibility for the Capital riot.³   If you factor all of this into the political calculus machine, it seems like hanging the party’s proverbial hat on Trump going forward would be a pretty risky move. 

The Trump faction of the party is certainly aware of this which would explain the 100+ pieces of legislation that are percolating through various state legislatures to restrict voting in the next election.  The non-Trump faction is also aware of this which is why they would like to distance themselves from Trump.  It will be a fight.  Once Trump is acquitted and he and his enablers embark on the USS Revenge, it could likely turn into an all-out war for control of the party.  It will be interesting to watch.

I think there is very little chance that Trump will actually mount another bid for the White House in 2024.  I think given his age, his health, his other legal problems Iall o think the odds are against it.  If that is true. then in addition to the intraparty fight that is likely to take place to determine the actual direction of the party – more toward right-wing, QAnon nonsense or back to actual Conservative principles – there will be a fight to determine which one of Trump’s acolytes will win the favor and loyalty of the Trump base.  We know that Ted Cruz has his eye on the White House.   Mike Pompeo has similar aspirations.  Or, who knows, maybe even Josh Hawley wants to takeover and see if he can ‘out Trump’ Trump. 

It is hard to imagine a scenario in which an acquittal of Trump coupled with the sure-to-follow internecine war in the Republican Party will actually benefit the party in the 2022 and 2024 elections.  However, now that the precedent has been set, for any Republicans who lose elections in 2022 or 2024, you can rest assured that those elections will have been ‘rigged’, there was ‘voter fraud’, and the Proud Boys and others will be standing by to rectify the situation.   Unfortunately, by failing to hold Trump to account for ‘The Big Lie’ and the resulting insurrection at the capital, it is highly likely that we will see more of the same in the future.  That is why I suspect the ammunition shortage in this country is likely to last at least another four years.  FrankenTrump on the loose and the Proud Boys stocked to the hilt with ammunition.  No doubt that will help everyone sleep soundly tonight as they drift off to sleep thinking about ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”! 

1. Nikki Haley criticizes Trump and says he has no future in the GOP – CNNPolitics
2. Why Thousands of Republicans Are Leaving the Party – The New York Times (nytimes.com)
3. Poll: Majority says Trump bears responsibility for Capitol riot – POLITICO

When I have been empaneled on juries in the past, I am pretty sure we were forbidden from talking to either the prosecution attorneys or the defense counsel while a trial was in session. And that seems like a reasonable thing if jurors are supposed to be impartial.  Obviously, the rules and ethics norms are different for United States senators.  After the House managers rested their case for the impeachment of Trump today, three senators who are ardent Trump supporters, met with Trump’s defense counsel.   Senators Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), Mike Lee (R-Utah), and Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who are supposed to be ‘impartial jurors’ in this trial met with Trump’s attorneys as they were preparing for the presentation of their defense tomorrow.  I guess I must have a different understanding of what ‘impartial juror’ means.  My bad!

As Jamie Raskin, the lead House manager, was finishing his closing remarks he asked the simple question along the lines of, “If a president cannot be impeached and convicted for inciting an insurrection, what can he be impeached and convicted for?”  It’s a very reasonable question.  Trump was acquitted in his first impeachment trial for abusing his office to coerce President Zelensky of the Ukraine into opening an investigation in his political rival, Joe Biden.  The acquittal was basically along party lines with Mitt Romney the only Republican to break ranks and vote to convict Trump on one of the two charges.

Now, it appears that Trump will once again be acquitted because not enough Republicans have the courage to vote to convict him and some, like the three mentioned above and the 15 Republicans who were not even in the Senate chamber during the hearing yeaterday, have obviously already made up their minds that inciting an insurrection against the United States of America is not a sufficiently egregious crime to warrant conviction.

Early in the Trump campaign in 2016, Trump made the statement that his support was so strong that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not be convicted.  Sadly, that appears to be a true statement.  The majority of Republicans defended Trump after the Mueller Report came out.  The majority of Republicans defended Trump and failed to convict him in his first impeachment trial.  The majority of Republicans appear ready to acquit Trump in his second impeachment trial.   Trump must be feeling pretty emboldened by all of this.

It kind of reminds me of John Gotti.  John Gotti, as you may remember, was the head of the Gambino crime family in New York.  He staged his own ‘insurrection’ to get into that position when he had Paul Castellano, the former head of the Gambino crime family, assassinated in 1985.  Gotti took over control to the Gambino criminal organization at that point. 

“At his peak, Gotti was one of the most powerful and dangerous crime bosses in the United States. During his era, he became widely known for his outspoken personality and flamboyant style, which gained him favor with some of the general public. While his peers avoided attracting attention, especially from the media, Gotti became known as “The Dapper Don”, for his expensive clothes and personality in front of news cameras. He was later given the nickname “The Teflon Don” after three high-profile trials in the 1980s resulted in his acquittal, though it was later revealed that the trials had been tainted by jury tampering, juror misconduct, and witness intimidation. Law enforcement authorities continued gathering evidence against Gotti that helped lead to his downfall. According to Sammy Gravano, Gotti earned between $5–20 million per year during his tenure as Gambino boss.

Gotti’s underboss Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano aided the FBI in finally convicting Gotti. In 1991, Gravano agreed to turn state’s evidence and testify for the prosecution against Gotti after hearing the boss making several disparaging remarks about Gravano on a wiretap that implicated them both in several murders. In 1992, Gotti was convicted of five murders, conspiracy to commit murder, racketeering, obstruction of justice, tax evasion, illegal gambling, extortion, and loansharking. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole and was transferred to United States Penitentiary, Marion in southern Illinois. While in prison, Gotti died of throat cancer on June 10, 2002, at the United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri. According to former Lucchese crime family boss Anthony “Gaspipe” Casso, “What John Gotti did was the beginning of the end of Cosa Nostra”.¹

I think the comparison between Trump and John Gotti is perfectly appropriate.   They are both self-centered, ruthless, and believe they can act with impunity.  Gotti murdered his opponents, while Trump uses character assassination to the same effect.  They were both surrounded by enablers who allowed this to continue unabated for years.  John Gotti’s crimes and misdeeds eventually caught up with him and I suspect that same fate is in store for Trump. The only question is how much more damage can he do to our country and our institutions before he is finally held to account. ‘Teflon Trump’ and ‘The Teflon Don’ – two of a kind.   

1. John Gotti – Wikipedia

I watched Day 2 of the impeachment trial on and off yesterday.  The case that the House impeachment managers laid out against Trump was pretty damning.  When the defense gets a chance to make their argument, it will be interesting to see how they do it.  They will have a difficult time explaining away the very graphic videos as the insurrection unfolded at the Capitol.  However, I think they will have an even more difficult time explaining away Trump’s own words captured via the hundreds of Tweets he sent out before the election, during the election and after the election.   Trump was setting the stage for ‘The Big Lie’ months before the election and the insurrection was just the culmination of all that preceded it.

One of the things that struck me the most during yesterday’s presentations was one of the things that Texas Democratic Representative, Joaquin Castro, put forward.  He laid out a timeline of the attack on the Capitol and contrasted that with the timeline of actions Trump took during this time.  Remember, at this time, Donald J Trump was the Commander in Chief of the United States.  A rational person would assume that the Commander in Chief would do something to try to stop the violence or, at a minimum, deploy the National Guard as the nation’s capital was under attack.  He did, after all, swear an oath to “protect, preserve and defend the Constitution of the United States.”  And what did he do?  He did nothing to try to stop the violence or to send help to the overwhelmed capital police force. 

Think about that for a minute.  The capital of the United States of America is under attack and the Commander in Chief does nothing to either stem the violence by telling his supporters that he condemns their actions and they need to disperse or by sending National Guard troops to assist.  Isn’t that the job of the man who is sworn to ‘preserve, protect and defend’ the constitution?   That is a clear dereliction of duty and a violation of his sworn oath.  Even if you can convince yourself he did not incite the insurrection, once the violence on the capital started, he had an obligation to use the full power and authority of his office to stop it – and he failed to act.  He failed to act to protect his own capital, the Congressmen and Congresswomen, their staffers and, in some cases, their families.  If he’s not guilty of inciting the insurrection, he is certainly guilty of dereliction of duty and, as such, he should never be allowed to hold a Federal office again.

The Republican senators are really in a tough spot but they have an ‘out’ and I expect many of them will take it.  Given the lackluster legal brain trust that makes up Trump’s defense team, I believe it is highly unlikely they will be able to mount a defense argument to dismiss the highly detailed presentation of the facts laid out by the House impeachment managers.  So, if the facts are against you, what do you do?  You argue the process and that will be the ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card that many Republicans use to wiggle out of having to vote to convict Trump.  They will simply state that they don’t believe the trial is constitutional since Trump is out of office, so that is why they have to vote to acquit.  I’d be willing to bet large sums of money that there will be many more Republicans who use that excuse as opposed to stating that the House impeachment managers didn’t prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt. 

Using the ‘the trial is unconstitutional’ excuse to vote against conviction will allow them to escape the wrath of Trump and escape the wrath of the Trump base.  It’s a virtual win-win.  The only losers will be American democracy, the Constitution and the rule of law.  I guess that’s a price many of these Republicans, who also swore an oath to defend the Constitution, are willing to pay. 

Frankly, I just don’t understand the political calculus at work for many Republicans right now.  There are many Republicans who are not only afraid of Trump but are also tired of the never-ending chaos.   Not to mention that under Trump’s leadership, the Republican Party has lost the House, the Senate and the White House.  If they have an opportunity to sideline this man, why wouldn’t they take it? 

There will no doubt be some short-term blow back from the Trump base but the next elections aren’t for two years and that’s a reasonable amount of time to try to placate all of those people and make the case for new leadership.  If they acquit Trump, he will be around for a long time causing even more chaos and he’ll be hell bent on further tightening his grip on the Republican Party.  His first act of business will be to exact revenge upon all of those who voted against him and that is likely to fracture the party even more than it already is.  It sure seems to me that it’s a question of short-term pain versus long -term pain!  I know which I would choose.

If Trump is acquitted, we can all assume that “FrankenTrump”, all pumped full of steroids, will be unleashed and will be feeling invincible.  And the Republicans, who have been unable to muster the courage to hold this man accountable – again! – will only have themselves to blame for whatever happens as a result of his further actions, lies and efforts to subvert American democracy. 

I watched and listened to part of the impeachment trial yesterday while I went about doing other things during the day.  The contrast between the presentation by the impeachment managers for the House of Representative, led by Jamie Raskin, and the presentation by Trump’s legal counsel was stark.   Jamie Raskin and his team presented a cogent, well thought out and articulate argument as to why the trial was constitutional.    On the flip side, by almost any measure, the performance of Trump’s attorneys Bruce Castor and David Schoen, was a disaster.  I’m certainly no lawyer but the contrast between the two sides was stunning.  As I saw in one Tweet, these guys made Rudy Giuliani look polished.  They were grossly underprepared.

It is true that Trump’s original team of five attorney’s had deserted Trump only one week before because apparently, they refused to argue ‘the big lie’ about wide spread voter fraud and that Trump actually won the election.  They knew that was only not true but a losing strategy and they finally walked.  Bruce Castor and David Schoen jumped into this fire at the last minute and it showed yesterday.  At the end of the day, 6 Republicans sided with the Democrats to vote that the trial was, in fact, constitutional and would proceed.

One has to wonder why Trump has had such trouble in getting top notch legal counsel.  On the one hand, one would assume there would be a number of high-profile attorneys who would be willing to try to make a name for themselves by defending the 45^th president in this impeachment trial.  The sad fact is, no one wants to go anywhere near this.   Where is Alan Dershowitz, the constitutional scholar and Harvard professor, who helped defend Trump in his first impeachment trial?  Where is Ben Ginsberg, famed Republican lawyer who has defended many Republican candidates over the years?  Washington D.C. is filled with high-priced, high-profile attorneys who would normally salivate for opportunities like this.  Where are they?

All of the rabid Trump supporters should ask themselves why Trump is having such a difficult time recruiting and retaining competent legal counsel?  Perhaps they should ask themselves why they should continue to defend this man when virtually no top notch, high-profile, well-credentialed and respected attorney in the country will jump into this swamp to defend Trump against these charges.  The fact is, all of these lawyers know that ‘the big lie’ is exactly that, a big lie, and the facts are strongly stacked against Trump.  They are also acutely aware that if Trump is acquitted, the decision will be based more political factors than on legal arguments.

After watching and listening to the proceedings yesterday, there is no doubt in my mind that Trump’s attorneys are overmatched and in over their heads.  I suspect the legal arguments presented by Jamie Raskin and his team in the upcoming days will be overwhelming from a legal standpoint.  It is going to put the Republicans in the senate in a very awkward position and it will be interesting to see what the political calculus will be.  Make no mistake about it, the outcome of this trial will not be based upon facts and legal arguments but will be based upon the collective political calculations made by the Republican jurors.

In a regular trial, the outcome is based upon the presentation of facts and arguments made by both the prosecutor and the defense counsel.  However, the big difference between a regular trial and this trial in the senate is that regular jurors do not have to worry about things like re-election!  I have served on three juries, including on one gang murder case, and when we received the case in the jury room, we simply debated that facts and arguments presented before rendering our verdict.  We certainly never concerned ourselves with what the political ramifications of our decision would be.  [Although in the murder trial the court records were sealed and our identities were protected for security reasons].  But, unlike a regular trial, the Republicans voting on this impeachment article will have the political calculus of their vote front and center in their minds.

It will take 17 Republicans to break ranks and join the Democrats to vote to convict Trump.  If there are less than 17 Republicans and Trump is acquitted, those Republicans who did vote to convict Trump, know they are likely to face a full-on assault from Trump and his allies in the upcoming months.  Trump has proven that he is a very vindictive and vengeful person so there is no doubt he will do everything he can to punish those individuals.  On the other hand, if a sufficient number of Republicans vote to convict Trump and preclude him from ever holding office again, there will be an immediate backlash from the Trump base.  However, if Trump is out of the running for future elections, that opens up the door for someone else to emerge as the Republican standard-bearer.  One has to believe there are a number of Republicans who have their eye on the White House and know that if Trump is off the playing field, it’s an entirely new game.

Given that under Trump’s leadership, the Republican Party lost the House, the Senate, and the White House one would think that the political calculus would argue for new leadership.  There haven’t been a lot of courageous Republicans willing to stand up to Trump over the last four years so I guess there’s really no reason to expect that to change.   I guess we’ll see. 

Today is a day that will go down in history, but not a good day in history.  Today is the beginning of Trump’s second impeachment trial.  He will be the only president in history who has been impeached twice.  He joins a very small club of former presidents who have suffered the ignominy of impeachment.  The others were Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton.  Richard Nixon resigned before he could be formally impeached.   How do Trump’s alleged crimes stack up against the other members of his club?

Andrew Johnson was Lincoln’s vice president in 1864 at a time when Lincoln was faced with trying to coax the country back together after the Civil War.  Unfortunately, Lincoln was assassinated 42 days into his second term and Johnson took over as President to preside over Reconstruction.  While one part of the Republican party sided with Lincoln and wanted to move forward with leniency for The South, the Radical Republicans wanted to punish the Southern politicians and extend full civil rights to freed slaves.  In contrast, Johnson wanted to extend pardons to Confederate leaders and he vetoed political rights for freedmen. 

The Radical Republicans, in revenge, passed a law stating that the president could not replace members of his cabinet without Senate approval.  Johnson thought this was unconstitutional and proceeded to fire his Secretary of War.  The Radical Republicans then brought 11 articles of impeachment against Johnson.  The House voted 126 to 47 to impeach Johnson but the Senate failed to convict him by 1 vote.

It wasn’t until Bill Clinton was in office in the 1990’s that another impeachment took place.  The Clinton saga started in 1993 when he and his wife, Hillary, were under Federal investigation for a deal that became known as the Whitewater controversy.  In addition, in 1994, Paula Jones sued Clinton for sexual harassment.  Kenneth Starr had been appointed as special counsel to investigate Whitewater but couldn’t find evidence of any wrongdoing.  However, the investigation broadened due to the Jones lawsuit and that ultimately led to the whole Monica Lewinsky scandal.

Clinton was impeached by the House in 1998 on two counts: perjury and obstruction of justice.  Both of these charges stemmed from the Lewinsky affair and had nothing to do with Whitewater which was the original genesis for the appointment of Ken Starr.  After a five-week trial in the Senate, Clinton was acquitted on both counts.  [And just as an interesting fact, in 1999, even after this lurid trail, Clinton’s popularity peaked at 73%].  That brings us to Trump who now has the distinction of being the only US president to be impeached twice.

We all recall the first impeachment saga.  Trump was impeached for abusing his power to coerce President Zelensky of the Ukraine to announce an investigation into his primary political rival, Joe Biden and his son, Hunter.  He was impeached in the House along party lines but the Senate was controlled by the Republicans and that would prove to be a dead end for a conviction on the articles of impeachment.  The Senate refused to call any witnesses at all and acquitted Trump along party lines.   Think about that for just a second.  Bill Clinton’s trial in the Senate resulting from his affair with a 21-year-old intern lasted 5 weeks and involved multiple witnesses, while Trump’s first impeachment trial lasted days and involved no witnesses, even though the allegations against Trump were much more egregious than those against Clinton.

Here we are at Trump’s second impeachment trial where he is accused of inciting an insurrection at the nation’s capital in order to overturn the results of a democratic election.  No doubt, it will be yet another interesting spectacle.  Trump’s lawyers will argue that his speech was covered under the First Amendment and they will also argue that it is unconstitutional to impeach a president after he has left office.  While I find both arguments a bit hollow given what happened, I find the second one bordering on absurd. 

The fact is, there have been cases of Federal officials who have been impeached and convicted after leaving office.  However, if it were true that a president cannot be impeached and convicted after leaving office and according to a DOJ opinion a president cannot be indicted while in office, what’s to keep a president from committing ‘high crimes and misdemeanors” a few days before leaving office?  He can’t be indicted and he knows he’ll be out of office before the House and Senate can move to impeach and convict him – it’s essentially a free pass to do just about anything he wants!!  That just doesn’t pass the giggle test.

Here’s the thing.  Andrew Johnson was impeached for firing one of his cabinet members – and acquitted.  Clinton was impeached for lying about an affair – and acquitted.  Trump was impeached for abusing his power for personal political gain – and acquitted.  Now Trump has been impeached for inciting an insurrection to undermine a democratic election.  If he gets acquitted, I’m just wondering what it will ultimately take for a president to be impeached AND convicted because the nature of the crimes just seems to be getting more and more egregious.  If Trump is not held to account for his actions this time around, the next ‘Trump’ might feel even more emboldened – if that is possible.  It will certainly not bode well for the future of democracy.

1. How Many US Presidents Have Faced Impeachment? – HISTORY

Given that it is Black History Month, I thought I would write about something a bit different.   Montana’s population is a pretty homogeneous group that is overwhelmingly white.  There are the indigenous people and a number of reservations in the state, but there is no question, Montana is predominantly white.  I did a little investigating and found an article written by a Montana historian discussing several black people who made a name for themselves here in Montana.  I found it fascinating and have included the link to the entire article below.  I decided rather than me trying to paraphrase this, I would just include the first portrait verbatim.  I would encourage everyone to read the entire article.

James Pierson Beckwourth (c 1800 – 1866)

James Pierson Beckwourth (c. 1800- 1866) was apparently known as far as France for his adventures in the American West (oui oui!). He lived for several years with the Crow (Apsáalooke) nation, participating on raids against the Blackfeet, learning the Apsáalooke language, marrying an Apsáalooke woman (or two, depending on your source), and having adventures that make me want to have a beer with the man and just listen.

He was a trained blacksmith born into slavery around 1800 (sources differ on his date of birth). His white father technically owned him (just in case you didn’t know how shitty slavery and the laws surrounding it were), but freed him at some point. Most of Beckwourth’s Montana adventures occurred after the 1820s, while he worked with the Apsáalooke nation. When he wasn’t there he was getting a mountain pass named for him in the Sierra Nevadas, running a store in Denver, being a professional card player in California, or trapping just about anywhere in the West that had fur-bearing critters. He is the only black man who had his adventures in the West published under the grandiose (and glorious) title The Life and Adventures of James P. Beckwourth, Mountaineer, Scout, and Pioneer, and Chief of the Crow Nation of Indians in 1856. (The link will take you to a Wayback Machine copy of the entire book.)

Beckwourth dictated his life story to a Mr. Thomas Bonner who was working in the California gold fields in the 1850s and one wonders how much Bonner’s hand had in skewing some of Beckwourth’s words (there’s a lot of power you have as the writer of something being dictated to you!) . Beckwourth’s book, while successful, eventually became dismissed as the far-fetched tales of a big-mouthed black man by white readers. Meanwhile, white men could tell the same stories (whether truthful of not) and be taken much more seriously! James spoke at least two or three languages fluently (if you’ve ever seen Apsáalooke written out, it doesn’t seem like a casual language you just pick up), traveled thousands of miles on horseback and on trains, probably got away with his life by the skin of his teeth more often than we can know, but still had a lot of his stories written off as fables.

It’s important that if we’re going to continue to glorify the “intrepid mountain man” trope (as Montanans can never seem to NOT do) that we include such larger-than-life characters as James Pierson Beckwourth. Black men were just as adventurous, determined, creative with their tales, and hard-living; we just don’t have as much testimony about their experiences. This is purposeful: keep in mind that the reason men like Beckwourth aren’t as well-known as Jim Bridger and the like is because they were kept out of narratives or telling their own stories by multiple, strategically placed barriers. Today Beckwourth’s book is considered a valuable primary source for information about the US Army, the Apsáalooke people, wildlife, geography, and information about diseases!

Mr. Beckwourth died in 1866 in Montana. He was working for the US Army leading them to an Apsáalooke outpost when he died, and some believe he was poisoned.

I am sure that the vast majority of Montanans have never heard of any of the people cited in this article.  I certainly hadn’t.   It is probably also true that none of these individuals are ever mentioned in high school history classes taught in this state. That was certainly true when I went to high school in Miles City back in the dark ages.   That is a real tragedy because it would just add to the rich historical fabric of this, “The Last Best Place.”  Hopefully someday we can all embrace the entire, complicated, and sometimes controversial history that got us to where we are today as opposed to just embracing those parts that we like and which look like us. 

1. Notable black Montanans: Part one of black history in Montana. | The Photographist

When I moved to Montana in 2018 and found my little acre just outside of Bozeman, I could imagine myself staying in ‘The Last Best Place’ for a long time although, admittedly, there were many times during the Trump years that I toyed with the idea of moving overseas.  And, in fact, I think there is a pretty good probability that I would have carried through on that threat had Trump been re-elected.  And it is absolutely true if his coup had been successful!   I’ve lived overseas before [Kuwait, France], and I’ve been fortunate enough to have travelled fairly widely abroad, so the prospect of living in a foreign country is not all that intimidating.  I view it more as an adventure.    

So why am I bringing this up now that Biden won the election, legitimately I might add, and the country seems to be getting back to some semblance of political and diplomatic normalcy?  Unfortunately, while the country seems to be moving forward, the new Republican regime in Montana seems hell bent on moving backwards.  The bottom line is that I’m just not sure I want to spend the next four years watching the Montana legislature pass law after law to move this state backwards and make it a less desirable place to live. 

The Republican dominated Montana state legislature and our newly elected Republican governor have been in office about one month now and they have offered up a number of bills that are more about individual legislators pushing their own personal agendas than about actually addressing the big picture issues facing the state. 

Montana is one of many states that are intending to pass bills restricting voter access under the guise of ensuring election integrity – even though the last election was, according to officials within the Trump administration, the ‘most secure’ election conducted to date.  The real goal of these laws is to ensure the Republicans’ grip on power in the state.

This will be made easier because another of the laws being proposed would give the governor the sole authority to appoint judges when there are vacancies in the courts due to deaths, resignations, etc.  There is currently a commission charged with reviewing and vetting potential candidates but under the new law that commission would be disbanded so ‘King Gianforte’, the current governor, would have the sole authority to make those appointments.   Those judicial positions would be up for election in the next election cycle but, the fact is, incumbent judges have a huge political advantage, so once these people are in place, they are likely to remain in place.

As I have pointed out before, the Montana state legislature is busy crafting anti-abortion laws and laws that restrict the rights of transgender students.   One can only assume that laws affecting the entire LGBTQ community are not far off.  I find it extremely ironic that a party that continuously espouses a desire for a smaller, less intrusive government and loudly advocates for personal responsibility is so eager to stick their government noses into people’s personal lives.

The legislature just passed a bill to limit liability for companies if customers or employees contract COVID on their premises.  This is the bill that Governor Gianforte said was necessary for him to lift the state-wide mask mandate.  One can assume that Gianforte will carry through on his campaign promise to repeal the mask mandate in direct contravention of guidance provided by the CDC. 

I have talked about the ridiculous law that the governor is about to sign that will allow concealed firearms to be carried just about everywhere, including on college campuses, by almost everyone who wants to, regardless of training or permit.  This bill will allow firearms to be carried in restaurants and bars and in all state and local government offices, in addition to on campuses.

There is also a piece of legislation being pushed through that will allow vaping inside of buildings such as restaurants.  It turns out that the individual pushing this piece of legislation has ties to the vaping industry, and once, again is pushing a personal agenda at the expense of solving real problems that will benefit all of Montana.  If you decide to come to Montana this summer and decide to go have dinner in one of our fine restaurants (and we have many), you will not only have to look around and wonder which people in the restaurant are armed, but you may well be subjected to second hand vaping smoke.  I ask again, what the hell are these people thinking?

My daughter graduates from NYU in May and will likely be attending graduate school on the East Coast so perhaps its time to begin rethinking my long-term plans.  The Last Best Place is rapidly becoming less so.